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Tesla was not only fucked by Westinghouse, but many others. The PR campaign by Edison is the worst, but JP Morgan pulling his project money since JP could not restrict access to make lots more money, and of course Westinghouse robbing him of personal wealth.

Tesla was not only fucked by Westinghouse, but many others. The PR campaign by Edison is the worst, but JP Morgan pulling his project money since JP could not restrict access to make lots more money, and of course Westinghouse robbing him of personal wealth.

Greed has screwed us all, and continues to do so today.

Except greed is why Westinghouse, Edison and JP Morgan had any money to invest in Tesla to begin with.

Without greed W, E and JP would have been subsistence farmers and Tesla would have been that crazy old man in the shack in the woods everyone stayed away from.

Not Necessarily true -- Tesla knowingly and intentionally mislead JP Morgan as to his real intentions and knew that even if successful, Morgan would never realize an ROI. Frankly Tesla was a major dick for pulling that stunt and is lucky to only have suffered the revocation of his funding.

Which does not mean that everything in those books is a lie. Or that everything in "new" Tesla books is true.

Just remember that there *is* another side of his story. Tesla *was* trying to run a business and he *was* filing a bunch of patents. He was not your Henry Cavendish [wikipedia.org], who just did the research and didn't care about money and fame and who, I would argue is much more under appreciated that Tesla.

The Thomas Edison corporate douche exhibit were paying for other people's inventions means that you can publicly pretend to have invented them, woo hoo. That can add all the other great patent douche's that came there after to the exhibit, with Apple as the A number 1, patent douche of all time;D. Seriously if you invented put your name on the patent app, if you didn't don't be a dick and put it there to feed your ego, it's really lame.

I saw a conspiracy theory book that claimed he succeeded in building his death ray and that's what the Tunguska explosion [wikipedia.org] really was. It further claimed that Tesla had done it as a publicity gimmick intending to aim it at the North Pole and blow it up right before Admiral Peary could reach the North Pole, but his aim was off!!!

It then went on to claim that Tesla did not die, but instead was living inside the "face pyramid" on Mars with Marconi!!!!

I saw a conspiracy theory book that claimed he succeeded in building his death ray and that's what the Tunguska explosion [wikipedia.org] really was. It further claimed that Tesla had done it as a publicity gimmick intending to aim it at the North Pole and blow it up right before Admiral Peary could reach the North Pole, but his aim was off!!!

It then went on to claim that Tesla did not die, but instead was living inside the "face pyramid" on Mars with Marconi!!!!

They use Wordpress and got hacked with the Pharma Hack [sucuri.net]. I wrote to their webmaster and explained the problem and sent them some links. They have since upgraded their version of Wordpress and secured the site. But, they still have junk in their database that needs to be cleaned out. He told me that they are working to correct the problem.

But seriously, in this era of re-discovering and correctly honouring scientists for their hard-work and genius (like Alan Turing is now rightly getting, for example) why is Tesla still languishing? I mean, either, way, it was god-damn American* guy who made the light bulb, who cares which one it was? I think the US govt should buck up and admit they dun goofed, just like the Uk govt did with Turing.

Langushing? Come on. He was played by David Bowie in a movie, and the coolest car company around is named Telsa.

Tesla has a lot more name recognition in the general public (and certainly among technical people) than scientists such as Shannon, Nyquist, and von Neumann who arguably did at least as much to usher in the modern world than Tesla.

I think the US govt should buck up and admit they dun goofed, just like the Uk govt did with Turing.

That will happen when it's politically advantageous. If you can get 1 million people voting in Ohio for the guy who favors Tesla, then you will have both candidates falling over themselves to say something nice about Tesla.

(Then saying how evil the other party was for what happened, and that if there were more/less regulation it wouldn't have happened, and if there were more/less judicial oversight/activism it wouldn't have happened, and if only we'd taxed more/less it wouldn't have happened).

I just don't think his stuff is funny. I don't mind cynicism, if it's funny. The Oatmeal seems to me like the latest in a series of unfunny webcomics that get popular simply because they make jokes about certain subjects (science, video games, etc) without actually being humorous. It's like the web equivalent of "The Big Bang Theory".

No he may not be getting any money directly, but he's getting attention, which is worth its weight in gold (and page views). He's on the front page of Slashdot AGAIN, as well as Forbes, etc. Maybe he is on a "real mission", but if so, why would he say "Goddamned Museum"? That sounds like his shtick.

People sometimes forget that this kind of piggyback marketing is his professional expertise, which he's done for longer than he's done the comic. Before he did The Oatmeal, he was an SEO consultant who would get people's domains ranked higher by making infographics to host there that he'd get to "go viral" on Reddit/etc. For example, you have some shady company selling penis-enlargement pills. You hire him, and draws you an infographic along the lines of FIVE CRAZY WACKY FACTS ABOUT PHALLUSES. That gets passed around a lot, and now your penis-enlargement domain has higher PageRank for a bunch of dong-related search terms.

Nowadays a bigger part of his deal is the actual content (since it's popular in its own right), but he's still really good at this kind of marketing.

Just as long as the museum isn't filled with as many inaccuracies as the Oatmeal piece was. Otherwise we're going to have a museum filled with "facts" that paint Tesla as a god who would have given the world free power, ended all wars, solved world hunger, and developed the ultimate recipe for apple pie, and Edison as a drooling idiot who couldn't have tied his shoes, let alone improve on the lightbulb, aid in the development of a system to deliver electrical current across long distances, and severely advance the technology of the basis of our modern medical imaging technology. (cue the rants about Clarence Dally, who had been victimized by Edison, despite the fact that Dally was a willing participant and we simply didn't know how dangerous X-rays were at the time. Look into every advance the science of radioactive materials in the first half of the 20th century, and you will find at least one Dally in each of them).

They both were geniuses. They both were flawed.Without both of their contributions to science, I wouldn't be typing this (electricity is efficiently delivered to my house in the form of alternating current. A nifty little device translates that alternating current into direct current, which is what runs my computer).

The Tesla/Edison thing does tend to get overstated a bit, but your last example doesn't actually include any contributions from Edison.

It's precisely the system that Westinghouse and Tesla were advocating, and the adoption of which Edison tried to stop because he was so invested in DC power distribution. It's not like he invented the concept of direct current itself.

Just a quick 90-100 minute jaunt in traffic from Manhattan into the heart of one of the least exciting places in all of New York. There is literally NOTHING out there unless you're on your way to the vineyards. I can't see this being a big tourist attraction which something like a Tesla museum deserves. Boo.

.... what happens if they get the money, get the matching contribution from NY, and the other party simply raises their bid and gets the property? At that point the funds are committed and there's no way to get them back to the contributors who contributed via indiegogo.

Too, indiegogo charges a fee, don't they? That further complicates it (and also means the 850k goal is not enough).

In other words: "I'm a cheap bastard and I don't want to contribute". You must be a load of fun at pizza parties. You're the type of guy who eats 10 slices and then complains that it was soggy and doesn't want to pay.

In other words: "I'm a cheap bastard and I don't want to contribute". You must be a load of fun at pizza parties. You're the type of guy who eats 10 slices and then complains that it was soggy and doesn't want to pay.

Interesting that you know so much about me. From your post I can tell that at the same party, you would pay three times the price of the pizza and suggest to the deliveryman that he should remember to bring it to the party if he had the time.

My assessment is roughly as accurate as yours, and based on as little information. Except I managed it in a way that made my point without being nearly so insulting to a random stranger on the Internet.

The actual current asking price is 1.6 million, so if they meet their goal with the matching funds from New York State, they would be clearly above this with 1.7 million dollars. (The Indiegogo fee is only 4% at that point.)

It should be noted that they will need additional money to actually turn the building into a museum, so that where any money beyond the amount needed to buy the property will go.

I would view it as unlikely the other developer will win by raising the bid because the company in question i

After re-reading I see that the money will be going to the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe regardless - which seems a worthy cause in any case. Worst case, they get extra funds. Best case, the property gets bought. Looks like I'm in after all.

A lot of people make fun of the Tesla vs. Edison thing but, think about it: this man invented the modern world and nobody knows (or cares). I went through elementary, middle, and high school in America. Then, I went to college. I never once learned about Nikola Tesla. I didn't find out who he was until I was in my mid twenties. I read a biography about him and was blown away. This guy helped to create everything that I used on a daily basis and I had no idea who he was. It was sad really.

It's about time that the geeks and scientists of the world step up and pay this man some respect. He DESERVES a museum in his honor in the USA. He deserves a place in the science curriculum. Children of today deserve to learn the truth about Tesla and all the ideas that he gave us. I just chipped in and I'm going to help to spread the word. It's time to give Telsa the recognition he deserves.

Just to clarify to other people: the Oatmeal guy isn't actually getting any money; it's going directly to the Tesla Science Center, a 503(c) non-profit organization: http://www.teslasciencecenter.org/about/ [teslasciencecenter.org]

I wrote a paper on him for this gorgeous blonde who was struggling for one of her requisite classes for nursing. I got to help the world have another pretty, dumb blonde nurse, you are welcome world. I also got to read up on this guy, he's the superhero of science. The reason we don't know about him is because of the Cold War, you couldn't say nice things about people from that neighborhood. If you are my age or older and went through it, you will know wtf I am on about.

That's not a museum. That's a new age hippie bullshit pyramid scheme claiming to be a museum. Their entire "about us" page is about how they are in no way related to the Tesla society down the street that "mysteriously" went bankrupt.

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The only Tesla myseum right now is in Belgrade http://www.tesla-museum.org/ [tesla-museum.org] http://www.teslasociety.com/ [teslasociety.com] www.teslasociety.com/ in cooperation with the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia. Tesla Corner. ****Nikola Tesla St. **** It was founded in Buffalo, New York in 1979. It is the oldest Tesla Society in Buffalo, 59-27 Woodbine Street, New York, NY 11385

Tesla was possibly one of the most brightly shining anti-proprietary knights in history -- intrinsically opposed to patent-trollery and obsessed with the upliftment and betterment of society. Yes, he took patents, as Stallman might willingly defile himself on an internet running through proprietary cables in order to do his work. Even the Buddha made a compromise along the way. Survival is especially tempting when you have epic (to say the least ) ideas. But I can think of no greater example than Tesla when

The key difference is there is now a developer willing to pay the price and who wants to flatten the site and turn it into a retail space, so the foundation has basically been given 6 weeks to come up with the money or the site and building is going to get sold and leveled.

The other huge difference is the State of New York has now pledged matching donations up to 850,000 dollars to buy the site and start work on the museum, which makes reaching the goal more viable.

Long Island is quickly running out of open land, the prices in some areas in eastern areas are astronomical. More and more farmland is being sold to developers. Closer to N.Y. City, perfectly sound homes get razed to the ground in order to sub-divide the land and build multiple homes. It's a crazy market here on L.I. where home prices average $375,000, and the closer to the water you go, well as they say, if you have to ask what the price is, you probably can't afford it! http://www.deptofnumbers.com/as [deptofnumbers.com]

The people who actually own the land want to sell it to serious investors who would make a true museum in tribute to Tesla. They recently said in a Newsday story how they get a lot of crackpot types wanting to exploit the land and Tesla's name for their own purposes. The Tesla tower was sold for scrap long ago, and cement used to seal up the entrance leading to the underground lab area, though the original red brick lab building still remains onsite. Here's a link..., http://www.newsday.com/opinion/view [newsday.com]